Image Credit: Andrew EcclesFox announced today that Ellen DeGeneres has decided to step down from her role as a judge on American Idol. DeGeneres joined the panel in its ninth season. The network released this statement today: “A couple months ago, I let Fox and the American Idol producers know that this didn’t feel like the right fit for me,” said DeGeneres. “I told them I wouldn’t leave them in a bind and that I would hold off on doing anything until they were able to figure out where they wanted to take the panel next. It was a difficult decision to make, but my work schedule became more than I bargained for. I also realized this season that while I love discovering, supporting and nurturing young talent, it was hard for me to judge people and sometimes hurt their feelings. I loved the experience working on IDOL and I am very grateful for the year I had. I am a huge fan of the show and will continue to be.”
Fox released a statement of its own: “We love Ellen and understand and support her decision to bow out of Idol,” said Peter Rice, Chairman of Entertainment, Fox Networks Group. “We were fortunate to receive the humor, energy and love for talent that she brought to the show.” Added Idol creator Simon Fuller in a statement: “I loved Ellen’s passion for the artists and her nurturing skills. She brought honesty and optimism to our judging panel and I will miss her greatly.”
News of DeGeneres’ departure comes amid reports that former Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe is all but certain to return to the show for its 10th season and that he reportedly favors an entirely new slate of judges for the competition show to make up for the loss of Simon Cowell, who left at the end of Idol’s ninth season to launch a U.S.-based version of his popular British series The X Factor. Complicating matters could be the fact that current judge Randy Jackson is reportedly signed through next year.
On Wednesday, a source told EW that the network’s dream scenario would be to make a splashy announcement about Idol’s future at the annual Television Critics Tour session with journalists on Monday in Beverly Hills. “They’d be the talk of TCA, and the message to other networks would essentially be, ‘Follow that!’” says the source. EW also learned that despite their names surfacing as potential Cowell replacements earlier this week, both Justin Timberlake and Elton John’s meetings with Idol producers took place “a couple months ago.”
Even though she seemed committed to her new gig at Fox, it was hard to imagine DeGeneres wanting to stick around if and when Cowell bolted. In January, she told EW that “If Simon goes, I go!” when asked to comment on rumors that the irascible Brit was preparing to leave at season’s end. Meanwhile, feedback for her performance was generally mixed: Though DeGeneres offered real critiques during the Hollywood round, she came off as bland and predictable during the live shows by often telling everyone they were “great.”
Good for you Ellen!!! Now if they can just get rid of whats her face and bring in some real talent I might just tune in again.
I really did love Ellen! She was a good judge and she helped make the show a lot of fun. Very funny lady. If I had to be around Kara that much, I would of quit too!!!! Good for you Ellen! You are way too nice for this crazy show!
Now get Kara off the show!
LoL – Ellen didn’t leave the show, she got kicked off. She brought absolutely ZERO value to the table, her comments were the exact same for pretty much every contestant. So glad she left, maybe I’ll start watching the show again… All the Kara haters, well the diff between Ellen and Kara is Kara actually has a ton of actual music background
she was “a good judge”?? wow, you’re easy to please!
Ellen: you’re a really cool person. It wasn’t your fault. They really don’t need a 4th judge. You did the right thing, Ellen.
LOL, Ellen probably got tired of Kara always calling her a guy! Randy and Ellen would say something and then Kara would say, I agree with the guys. She did that so many times.
Ellen should be the host!
Ellen is hilarious, but she was a terrible judge. I think she had fewer constructive comments than Randy, and that’s saying something.
Ellen isn’t funny and had no business judging a singing competition. Hopefully they will get someone who at least has a musical backround.
Ellen showed great promise as a judge during Hollywood Week, but she seemed to lose her nerve when the show kicked into gear. I’m glad she gave it try, but it didn’t work out. Everybody shake hands and move on.
‘what’s her face’ is kara dioguardi. go google her. she has talent. she wrote prolly most of the songs you sing, and even SINGS in platinum weird. her song, ‘taking chances’, got picked up by celine. do your research.
Do YOUR research–most of the songs she’s written are awful, and Platinum Weird was an embarrassing gimmick.
UGH, every song I’ve ever heard by her makes my hears hurt. I can’t believe people respect and go by what she puts out. However, she was the closest thing to a consistent judge last season lol
“Give a b!tch a break!” Despite what I may think of her music and her first season (terrible), I agreed with about 85% of what Kara said last year. Which is leagues ahead of the other judges. For my money, she gets another shot. Y’know, tiebreaker for one bad season and one good season.
Kara has not wrote any of the amazing songs that I love!! She sucks. There is nothing special about her songwriting.
Interesting opinions, but the dollar value of Kara penned songs makes her one of the best songwriters out there at the moment, plus she is an A&R record executive. She’s held in very high esteem in the biz. Facts are facts.
I am appalled by the judgemental comments and terrible grammar being used here.
Kara is a bit.. in real life! So me and others are perfectly fine with being brutally honest about her!
It’s all moot since Kara has been fired.
They say she’s out too. so who cares if she has talent she sucked as a judge.
Hopefully it is true that Kara was fired. Now all the damage that she has done from her interviews and on the show has come right back to her. What goes around comes around!
Yes!!!! Bye bye Ellen!
No one cares about this show anymore.
Absolutes tend to weaken your point, even if it has any validity to begin with.
After watching the insightful, pointed, specific judging overall on America’s Got Talent, it will really be hard to watch the broad generalizations and nonsense responses of American Idol. Clear the panel and start over please.
You cared enough to read the article and comment.
Niix, … everybody knows that stuff about absolutes.
Everybody?
Tee-hee.
Kara was actually, in my opinion, was growing into the role. First year she acted like she was in heat, but second year she was doing pretty well for herself. Still seemed to be in heat though.
Yeah, she can really stop that cougar nonsense, and the wya she was hanging off Simon half the time was decidedly unfunny. The judges became more self-indulgent and irrelevant last year, if that’s possible.
I’d rather they go back to a three judge panel.
I love Ellen and actually thought she did a good job on Idol, but the only way to rejeuvenate this show is to bring in a totally new panel of judges and maybe some new rules (expanding the ages not only downwards but upwards too, no more theme nights, no guest judges, etc).
Good suggestions Alan. I also think they should do less of the audition show and stop completely showing 60 year old people in chicken suits and the like since they don’t qualify by the rules and are only on for us to make fun of them. Instead, I’d like them to show more of what happens during Hollywood so we’d know why some were accepted and others kicked off. And no more than 5 calls from any phone-none of this 4,000 votes business.
@Alan – I know what you mean about theme nights, BUT wouldn’t a talented singer need to show what their voice can do in other genres (like the better dancers have to do)? I would like to see the final 16 pick more songs from their personal repertoire, so that we know what genre is their preference.
@Danny – I second your motion to limit the number of votes per phone or text. All the ‘tweens have nothing better to do than vote from under their sheets for two hours (past their bedtime), and then they vote for reasons irrelevant to talent!
Kara is fired!!!
wise choice
Whisper-yells saying Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler are the new judges.
Classy move for her to admit it was not the right fit for her and to leave rather than forcing them to force her out.
I absolutely agree. It does show class on Ellen’s part! She is pretty awesome and consistently comments on what a huge fan she is of AI. I think her admiration for the show and its contestants is what made her want to do it in the first place but I knew she would have a tough time with the judging process. I still love Ellen a ton! Great decision on her part.
Oh please, do you REALLY think this was her choice? She was booted off, but they allowed her to act like it was her idea so she could save face. She was the worst judge ever and she comes off looking like a fool now for ever inserting herself into the show.
I like Ellen, but I hated her on Idol. She refused to criticize intelligently. Everyone was “great.” She felt it was her job to make a funny quip instead of actually giving the contestants any honest insight. And she would 99% of the time just piggy-back off Randy’s inane “comments.” I look forward to an entirely new panel next year. The show badly needs a major overhaul.
Well put.
I agree with the “whole panel overhaul” thing. If they’re going to survive Simon leaving they need major changes.
I think Ellen is very wise and self-aware to know that she is too kind of a person to have to hand out criticism every week to people whose dreams are on the line.
Absolutely agree…I am in full support of a “whole panel overhaul”. I was sure I would never watch again if Simon left but I am now intrigued by the concept of an overhaul.
So people who offer honest criticism aren’t “kind”? It’s a judge’s job to offer intelligent, helpful criticism. Ellen wasn’t capable of that; it’s not because she was too kind. I’m sure she’s a wonderful person, but she didn’t have the “chops” to be an AI judge.
Good decision – it was clear that she hated critizing and honestly, she didn’t have any music industry credibility. I love her wit and charm and that will be missed.
This show is over with unless a huge name is on the panel. And, no the answer is not Jessica Simpson.
*shudder* Jessica Simpson? Ugh!
Tonya & Linda:
You might get a kick from this item I’m copying from another comments column…..
“For all you Jessica lovers:
While taking the Pop Quiz this a.m., I noted that below “You might be interested in:” on this Pop Quiz page is a pic of Jessica Simpson with her new “boyfriend”. At the bottom of the pic, it noted “Paid Distribution”. It tickles me to no end to know that she/her people paid the media to show this pic. What a famewh***!!!”
“It was hard for me to judge people”? I’m so confused as to what she thought she would be doing as a judge.
I won’t miss her. I wouldn’t miss Kara or Randy either.
Knowing that her job entailed judging and actually have to do it are two different things. It was obviously hard for her to tell someone to their face that their performance sucked. Not everyone’s cut out to be Simon Cowell.
Yeah, she’s NOT saying, “I had no idea I’d be judging.” She IS saying, “I didn’t think it would make me feel this bad.”
Isn’t comprehension fun?
Yes, I get it. But why was that so hard to predict? I don’t actually have to be on the show to know I wouldn’t enjoy telling people they suck. Isn’t awareness fun?
Hey Niix – there’s a difference between “comprehension” and taking giant leaps when you read something and putting your own spin on it. Ellen didn’t say she didn’t know it would be this hard, so why the quotes around that comment in your post? Do YOU know how to read or how to use quotes. I love it when people like you are so smug about someone else, and then show their own ignorance. Way to go! And if Ellen was a fan of the show as she has said, then she knew what she was getting into. She thought she could do a better job of it, and when she couldn’t she quit (before she was fired).
It’s called paraphrasing. I would have thought it obvious since the source material is at the top of the page. /shrug
And, Professor Hypnogal, if I have to draw direct, brightly-colored lines to illustrate the logic between her direct quotes and my interpretation then perhaps you should refocus your efforts on intermediate comprehension rather than supercilious critique. Although if you still, at second glance, fail to derive how I came to my conclusions, I’d be more than happy to parse the logic to something a 12-year old could understand. “I love it when people like you are so smug about someone else, and then show their own ignorance.” Pot, meet kettle.
@Katie — Neither you nor I are celebrities to whom these offers are made. I imagine the pitch was initially made by her friend Simon – and he can be persuasive, I imagine. She thought she could handle it. She misjudged her own emotional fortitude and is now owning up to the mistake. It seems, after all, that Ellen might be human.
Ding dong the witch is dead….
The witch? What show were you watching? She was one of the nicest people on there.
I have seen first hand how “nice” Ellen truly is to her staff.
Hitler comes to mind.
Good move for her!
She really wasn’t a good fit for the show. Idol seems to be on the verge of rebooting in my opinion.
I think she was ticked off from day one when Simon bowed out and she is a very sensitive person. He hurt her, and she hated hurting young talent, so I totally agree with her decision. As much as I love Ellen she never relaxed into the role of judge. We need more encouragers in the world so I’m glad we get Ellen back to do that full time. It was a crazy schedule and probably not great for Portia (as supportive as I’m sure she was).
Good decision, Ellen!
WHY WON’T KARA LEAVE?!!!
I tend to agree, although I liked her more in her 2nd season than in her 1st. Maybe next year she’ll actually be tolerable. Or not.
I will miss Ellen but I don’t blame her. She’s too busy with her own show and too nice for Idol.
Good for Ellen. She wasn’t the right fit for Idol and at least she admitted it. Why dosen’t EW also say both Elton and Timberlakes reps have said they are 100 percent not interested in being judges on Idol? You keep saying meetings took place two months ago but according to their reps they never had meetings cause they were never interested.
They need to dump Kara too. She is the WORST!
Can’t we all just agree that Randy Jackson is by far the weakest link? Even worse than Kara, who I think shows intelligence (not often allowed for women on TV). I do think she tries to hard to create moments on air, like EW noted.
I do agree with that. I’m not a big fan of Kara, but at least she makes the occasional intelligent comment. Randy is usually either boring or dead wrong!
TOTALLY AGREE. Randy NEVER gives any constructive, actionable feedback. He either liked it, or it didn’t work for him. What is someone supposed to do with that? Kara, annoying as she sometimes was, was really offering feedback that contestants could use.
They should of god rid of that dead weight Ryan & got Ellen to host!
YES, I keep posting that too.
Ditch Seacrest, make Ellen the host.
Totally agree! THAT would be a great fit for her and Ryan has gotten so full of himself that he’s just annoying. And she had a multi-year contract, so I guess that isn’t a drawback.
Yep. And her quips and everyone-is-great mindset would be appropriate there. Besides, let’s face it, a pigmy shaman who doesn’t speak English would be better than Mr. I’m-Gonna-Make-Didi-Cry.
Ditch Seacrest and hire Cat Deeley!
Don’t you dare bring lovely Cat into this tempest. American Idol doesn’t deserve her.
Yes, bye bye Jackson – adios Seacrest. If they get rid of all the judges, get rid of Ryan too. He’s already full of himself and now that Cowell is gone, he’s going to really try and assert himself as the face of the show. YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“should’ve gotten rid of”
Sorry, couldn’t help saying something. Just want to help America stop using the “should of” thing, one person at a time. I hope you’re not mad. Just trying to help you not make that mistake at work, on an important message, etc. Peace.